Fleet Town News

11^th January 2009

Volume 4, Number 1

In This Issue

· Challenging times

· Forthcoming events

· National retailers retain Fleet stores

· Credit crunch affects Fleet’s retailers

· Conference highlights impact of business crime

· eHampshire announces 2009 workshops

ftc.manager@hart.gov.uk

Challenging year ahead

Fleet faces a challenging year as the economic downturn continues to exact its toll. Several retailers – both national and independent – have closed or gone into administration while non-retail businesses have imposed redundancies or pay cuts.

The loss of national retailers, such as Woolworths, will impact on a great many high streets throughout the UK as their stores were usually large and prominent units. In Fleet, Woolworths occupied one of the larger units in the Hart Shopping Centre. Sadly two other national retailers that have gone into administration – Adams and Officers Club – also occupied units in the shopping centre.

Most retailers are tied into leases with rent reviews contracted to rise annually – often quite steeply. While such rises may have been acceptable previously they are increasingly causing problems for both national and independent retailers. Area and regional managers for several different national retailers have said that the rents in Fleet are excessively high.

Retailers’ woes are also being compounded by the reluctance of consumers to spend. This is leading to decreases in footfall and reduced spend per visitor.

Forthcoming events

Monday 19th Jan: Hart District Council will hold its Statutory Consultation on business rates on Monday 19th Jan 2009 at 7.00 pm in the Council offices .

National retailers retain Fleet stores

Marks and Spencer will retain its Simply Food store in Fleet, the store manager has confirmed. The group has announced plans to close 25 of its food stores and shed over 1,000 staff throughout the UK.

Simply Food has long been a favourite of Fleet shoppers and needed to utilise additional storage space over the Christmas period to cope with its customers demands.

Similarly Next says that it will continue trading at its unit in the Hart Shopping Centre for the term of its existing lease. The company notes that the whole of the Blackwater Valley including its branches at Camberley, Farnborough, Farnham, Woking, Guildford and Fleet is particularly difficult for retailers because of the number of towns and retail outlets in the region.

The Next store in Fleet provides a limited range of the retailer’s products and does not sell any men’s clothing. The company says that it might be interested in a larger unit in Fleet but that any decision would be dependent on the trading conditions and the potential impact on its other stores in the area.

Credit crunch affects Fleet’s retailers

The collapse of three national retail chains – Woolworths, Officer’s Club and Adam’s – has affected Fleet’s retail offering with the closure of three units in the Hart Shopping Centre.

A fourth shop, Maher the Booksellers will close its Fleet store will close on 14^th February. The company cites high rentals and low turnover as the main reasons for closing. Maher’s has been located in the Hart Shopping Centre for the past 11 years.

Tony Maher, managing director, comments, “It’s a sad reflection of our times that our turnover for the first day of the closing down sale was nearly four times that of the previous Saturday; if only we could have consistently enjoyed that level of support.”

Conference highlights impact of business crime

A conference hosted by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) on 3^rd December noted that business crime in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight cost just FSB members more than £55 million last year. Some 49 per cent of businesses in the region were affected by crime during the period.

The conference was very worried by the lack of participation from local authorities and made several recommendations to improve policing. The conference noted that there is a perception that the police do not take business crime seriously.

eHampshire announces 2009 workshops

eHampshire is launching a series of workshops intended to help businesses beat the credit crunch. The workshops will be held at Winchester Guildhall and run from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm on four dates –10^th February, 26^th March, 12^th May, and 16^th June. The cost is £28.75 including VAT.

Each workshop features four leading specialists in web business services. During the morning each specialist will give a brief overview of their subject. Delegates can then attend their choice of two of the four in a longer workshop in the afternoon.

For more information see www.ehampshire.org

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